New Left 4 Dead campaign coming next month

Valve may be hard at work on the upcoming Left 4 Dead sequel, but that doesn't mean it's abandoned the original. In fact, Shacknews says the studio plans to release a new downloadable campaign in September, just weeks from Left 4 Dead 2's November 17 release date.

Dubbed Crash Course, the new campaign will reportedly take place between the existing No Mercy and Death Toll campaigns, and it will feature "new locations, new dialogue from the original cast, and an explosive finale." You can already view the campaign's fake movie poster on this page.

Shacknews quotes Valve as saying Crash Course will deliver "a complete Versus mode experience in just 30 minutes." (Versus games pit four player-controlled survivors against four "super-infected" players, and in current campaigns, they can last well over an hour.) Valve will also tweak item spawning behavior and add a recharge timer for teammates' super-infected attacks.

Windows gamers will get the new campaign free of charge through Valve's Steam content delivery service. However, according to Shacknews, Xbox 360 users will have to cough up 560 Microsoft points (seven actual American dollars) for the same content.